Music

3.11.2016

By Jake Viswanath

Elton John & Young Thug To Collaborate + The World's Oddest Musical Pairings

We love it when two great musicians have a meeting of the minds and combine their musical sensibilities to create an outstanding track. And more often than not, the weirder the collaboration, the better; when two artists team up that have little to do with one another, personally or musically, our minds are usually blown—either by how good or bad it is.

The next odd coupling to grace the music scene is none other than legendary singer-songwriter Elton John and gender-bending rapper Young Thug. According to The Fader, Lyor Cohen, the co-founder of Thug’s record label, 360 Entertainment, arranged a FaceTime meeting between the two after John confessed to being a fan of the rapper. After the meeting, John sent Thug the instrumental of his classic hit “Rocket Man” and let the rapper experiment.

While we do not exactly know what will become of this collaboration, we want to find out. So to commemorate this potentially momentous and strange occasion, we dug through the music archives of the ’90s and 2000s to collect the weirdest collaborations of late. John and Thug would be joining some esteemed company.

Celine Dion and R. Kelly: “I’m Your Angel”

What happens when you put one of the best classic vocalists of all time in the same room as one of the most infamous R&B artists of our generation? This slice of late ’90s soft R&B. Their voices somehow mesh very well—Dion adapts particularly well to Kelly’s signature sound—despite having extremely different musical styles. The song takes on a deeper meaning following the death of Dion’s husband of 22 years, but unfortunately, any song attached to R. Kelly just gives off a creepy vibe. Not to mention that the combo is just too weird to wrap our brains around no matter how good the results were.

Duran Duran and Lindsay Lohan: “Danceophobia”

We have been crying for Lohan to make a grand return to music forever now (“Rumors” is still that jam, okay?). And while this isn’t exactly what we were hoping for, we will take what we can get. La Lohan made her low-key comeback as a feature on legendary group Duran Duran’s latest studio album, Paper Gods. And if that was not random enough for you, she delivers a spoken-word verse—of all things. On “Danceophobia,” Lohan plays a doctor that specializes in curing—you guessed it—“danceophobia.” “If you can hear me, let me know,” she teases over subtle electronic synths. We can hear you, Lindsay. Now give us a proper album.

Gaga has a diverse array of collaborations under her belt, joining with everyone from Tony Bennett and Elton to Beyoncé and Flo Rida. But perhaps the oddest move that Mother Monster has ever made was when she made an appearance on Wale’s track, “Chillin.” A hardcore rapper from Washington D.C. and a glam electro-pop singer from the Upper West Side could not have been more of a mismatch in 2009, and today it would still bewilder us. But you can’t deny that Gaga makes a great hook girl for urban artists. Her chorus will get stuck in your head for days.

Eminem and Elton John: “Stan”

Turns out Elton John is not a stranger to bizarre collaborations. Eminem has gotten a lot of slack over the years for his homophobic lyrics, but he made his true stance on the LGBT community crystal clear when he joined the openly homosexual John on stage at the 2001 Grammys to perform his hit “Stan.” The two musicians have made their friendship known in interviews. But the performance still sent shockwaves throughout America for both its sheer oddness and powerful message that two artists on opposing sides of the music spectrum can stand together in solidarity.

Demi Lovato and Third Eye Blind’s Stephan Jenkins: “Jumper”

In what may take the trophy for the weirdest collaboration of all time, Jenkins, the lead singer of the classic ’90s rock band, joined former Disney princess Lovato on stage during her performance at last year’s iHeartRadio Music Festival. The twosome, Lovato in a black fur coat and Jenkins fresh from the gym in workout gear, performed the Third Eye Blind hit “Jumper” during the show. The crowd’s response was tepid at best, and we can see why. The performance was not bad in any sense. In fact, Demi killed it as always. It was just too bizarre of a musician meld to comprehend. We can’t imagine how many drinks the bar sold after that performance.